Apple’s Workforce Reduction: Over 700 Jobs Cut Amidst Project Shifts

The latest WARN report from the Employment Development Department of California (EDD) says that over 700 people have recently lost their jobs at Apple. Many of the people who were fired worked at Apple’s offices in Santa Clara.

Three hundred and seventy of them came from the location where the company’s now-defunct electric car project was based. Because of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) program, California law says that companies must make a report with the EDD for every location where workers are being let go.

Apple laid off people at eight locations in Santa Clara, including the main office for cars. However, one of those locations worked on the company’s own MicroLED display project, which was apparently shelved in March because of high costs and technical issues.

The company wanted to make its screens for iPhones, Macs, and smartwatches, but it looks like that won’t be happening any time soon.

Apple’s original plan for the car was to make one that could drive itself and wouldn’t need pedals or a steering wheel. But then the company changed its mind and chose to make an electric car instead.

According to an earlier Bloomberg report, Apple ended the internal project called “Project Titan” after putting billions of dollars and ten years of work into it.

Apple offered the people who were working on the car the chance to move to other parts of the company, including teams that are apparently working on AI and home robotics. But Apple’s WARN report shows that it wasn’t able to bring everyone back into the company.

Apple is thought to be very early in the process of making personal robots for people’s homes. According to another Bloomberg story, one of the machines that is still being worked on is a robot that follows people around.

The other is a tabletop device that uses a robot to move a screen around. The company is working on personal robots as part of its plan to find new ways to make money, which also includes the Vision Pro.